The 2030 Challenge is an initiative started by nonprofit, Architecture 2030, that calls for all new buildings, developments, and major renovations to be carbon-neutral by 2030. The two major objectives of the 2030 Challenge are: 1) to globally reduce fossil fuel consumption and green house gas (GHG) emissions of the built environment; and 2) to advance the development of sustainable, resilient, carbon-neutral buildings and cities.

The mission of the AIA 2030 Commitment, in turn, is to transform the practice of architecture, with the 2030 Challenge in mind, to prioritize energy performance and carbon reduction strategies during the design process.

The Green Engineer measured its progress in 2017 towards the Architecture 2030 Challenge by reporting and submitting data from 114 of its projects to the AIA 2030 Design Data Exchange. These 114 projects combined represent a total of 19,274,884 GSF of building construction.

Fortunately, due to the nature of our work, a majority of our 2017 projects, (83.0%), have performed and completed energy models. The exceptions are projects in very early design stages and interior fit-outs. Based on the average predicted EUI (btu/sf/yr) from the project energy models compared to the Energy Star median EUI per building type, the results show that, on average, libraries, K-12 schools, and offices of more than 100,000 SF, performed the best in the 2030 Challenge.

The average predicted EUI percent reduction across all of our reported projects was 40.6%. The 2030 goal for today is 70%. Only 6 of our projects reported achieved 70% EUI or above.

Though designing and constructing with sustainability in mind is more widely accepted than it used to be, particularly in Massachusetts, there is still much work to be done to reach carbon neutrality by 2030.